America's Capital of Dead Vice Presidents

2020-12-15 · documentary visit · John · 3:41 · watch on YouTube

Topic: History & curiosities · mode: Personal essay · tags: on location

Visiting Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis, resting place of more US vice presidents than anywhere on Earth, John says what moves him is not the dignitaries but the ordinary people who made the city, epitomized by strangers who mourned Lucy Ann Seaton, its first burial.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Indiana, known for not being known: race cars, the children's museum, Indiana limestone

• ★★ John says Indiana is most known for not being known for much: a race car thing, some sports teams, and a children's museum being attacked by dinosaurs. (playful) — 00:00:00 · Indiana
• ★★ John says Indiana limestone built many famous American buildings, including the Empire State Building, but none of them is in Indiana. — 00:00:00 · United States, Indiana

00:00:29 — Crown Hill's vice presidents: Hendricks, Marshall, Fairbanks; no Indiana VP became president

• ★★★ John says Crown Hill in Indianapolis, the state's largest cemetery, is the final resting place of more US vice presidents than any other location on Earth. — 00:00:29 · Indianapolis
• ★★ John shows the grave of Thomas Hendricks, vice president for about eight months in 1885. — 00:00:29
• ★★ John shows the mausoleum of Thomas Marshall, vice president from 1913 to 1921. — 00:00:58
• ★★ John says Marshall was known for self-deprecating humor, once writing that Indiana is the mother of vice presidents, home to more second-class men than any other state. — 00:00:58 · Indiana
• ★★ John shows the grave of Charles Fairbanks, VP from 1905 to 1909 under Teddy Roosevelt, mostly remembered for working against the policies of the president he served. — 00:00:58
• ★ John says Fairbanks's remarkable goatee might be the best facial hair in US vice presidential history. (playful, hedged) — 00:01:27
• ★★★ John says no Indiana vice president went on to become president: 18% of US vice presidents who never became president are from Indiana, which has just 2% of the US population. — 00:01:27 · Indiana, United States

00:01:56 — The ordinary people who made Indianapolis; Lucy Ann Seaton's funeral attended by strangers

• ★★ John says Crown Hill is a huge cemetery, with over 25 miles of paved roads and over 200,000 graves. — 00:01:56
• ★★★ At Crown Hill John thinks less of the vice presidents than of all the people for whom Indianapolis was home, their loves, losses and ambitions, who together both made history and were subjected to it. — 00:01:56 · Indianapolis
• ★★★ John says those people built the place where he lives, and he and his neighbors are now making Indianapolis what it will be for future residents, when he himself lies at Crown Hill. — 00:02:26 · Indianapolis
• ★★ John says the first person buried at Crown Hill was Lucy Ann Seaton, who died of tuberculosis in 1864 at 33. — 00:02:26 · tuberculosis
• ★★ John says Seaton's family was new to the area, and her husband placed a newspaper notice saying he was a stranger and inviting the public to the funeral. — 00:02:26
• ★★ John says that though almost no one knew Seaton, hundreds and hundreds came to help her family mourn, and people still regularly stop at her grave. — 00:03:14 · Indianapolis
• ★★★ John says strangers turning out to mourn Seaton is, to him, the best of Indianapolis. — 00:03:14 · Indianapolis

In the description and comments

• ★★ In a channel comment John recommends Unchain, Partners In Health's podcast about the only psychiatric hospital in Sierra Leone. — creator comment · Partners In Health, Sierra Leone
• ★ In a channel comment John names Ashley Ford's memoir Somebody's Daughter, about a Fort Wayne childhood, his favorite book of next year (2021). — creator comment
• ★ In a channel comment John says former vice president Dan Quayle, who lives in Arizona but has deep roots in Indianapolis, could end up buried at Crown Hill. (speculative) — creator comment · Indianapolis
• ★ In a channel comment John says Mike Pence will probably be buried in Columbus, where he is from, rather than at Crown Hill. (speculative) — creator comment

Threads in this video

• restate · What do the living owe the dead and those not yet born? — John says those people built the place where he lives, and he and his neighbors are now making Indianapolis what it will be for future residents, when he himself lies at Crown Hill. (00:02:26)
• predicted · John: Dan Quayle could end up buried at Crown Hill Cemetery (2020) — In a channel comment John says former vice president Dan Quayle, who lives in Arizona but has deep roots in Indianapolis, could end up buried at Crown Hill.
• predicted · John: Mike Pence will probably be buried in Columbus, Indiana, not at Crown Hill (2020) — In a channel comment John says Mike Pence will probably be buried in Columbus, where he is from, rather than at Crown Hill.

Where the stories that moved here went next

• John: Dan Quayle could end up buried at Crown Hill Cemetery (2020) — unresolved; last: repeated, 2022-10-07
• John: Mike Pence will probably be buried in Columbus, Indiana, not at Crown Hill (2020) — unresolved; last: predicted, 2020-12-15

Mentioned

Central: Crown Hill Cemetery · Indiana · Indianapolis · Lucy Ann Seaton · Vice President of the United States

Also: People: Charles W. Fairbanks · Theodore Roosevelt · Thomas A. Hendricks · Thomas R. Marshall

Organizations: Facebook · The Children's Museum of Indianapolis

Concepts: Indiana limestone · tuberculosis

Places: Empire State Building · United States

Events: Indianapolis 500

Only in the description or credits: Ashley C. Ford · Dan Quayle · Mike Pence · Partners In Health · Sierra Leone · Somebody's Daughter · Unchain (podcast)

Also centred on Crown Hill Cemetery: John and Hank at the Cemetery · John and Hank Hanging Out but they Keep Getting Younger and More Pixelated

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